D Day, June 6, 1944
Today, June 6, 2013, is the 69th anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy, D-Day. General Dwight Eisenhower was the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces, consisting of combat forces from Canada, France, the UK, and the United States. It was the largest amphibious assault in history. The total number of Allied casualties was approximately 10,000, and 6600 of them were Americans. In one day, 1,465 Americans died on the beaches in the assault.
The phrase "they gave their lives" doesn't really touch the depth of the personal sacrifices they made. They were young people with hopes, lives to live, plans for the future, children they should have had, other people they should have met and grown old with, and they left it all on a beach in France to protect those blessings for others. They made that sacrifice because they understood that the country they loved and what it stood for was worth dying to protect.
What would they say now if they knew that, 64 years later, in a presidential election, fully half the people in this country would elect a man who was completely unqualified, on the basis of vaporous promises and meaningless slogans? What would they say if, after watching him prove his unworthiness for 4 years, the same people would re-elect him? But I'm not talking to the people who support Mr Obama. This isn't about them, and it isn't about him.
I'm talking to the other half of this country. I'm talking about the ideas the men at Normandy were willing to die for. We will, like it or not, be faced with the responsibility of restoring this country in the years ahead. We owe it to the people who died 69 years ago today on that beach, and we owe it to all the others who died in other places, at other times, but for the same reasons. We must teach our children what it means to live in the greatest country in the world. We must make them understand that they are part of something greater than themselves, and by our own example, show them that the choices they make have consequences, for themselves and for others around them. We have to live up to those things ourselves. We owe it to everyone around us, and we owe it to the people who died on this day 69 years ago.
Sadly some 600 WWII Vets a day pass away. If no one has sat with one for a few hours to listen to their stories they should. My Grandfather was a WWII Veteran who passed away in 2004. When asked in an interview once, "Who had the most profound impact on your life"?, his response was short, sweet and to the point.... He said, "Adolf Hitler". He said this because in 1938 my Grandfather was a poor farmers son trying to go to Sneads College in Alabama. In 1941, because of his college background, the U.S. Navy gave him a commission. He served in the Atlantic and in the Pacific with distinction and retired from the U.S. Navy in 1965 after over 20 years of distinguished service. He, like so many of that generation knew that the future of this Nation was at stake. Hitler was not going to stop with Russia, he was going to take it all and the Japanese were helping him achieve that goal.
ReplyDeleteI make it a point of thanking any WWII Vet. They may be a little worse for wear on the outside, but let them talk to you for a few moments on their time during the War and you will see a fire in their eyes that makes you feel the dedication they felt towards our Country. We need more people like that here today....